In a dramatic volte-face, the civil aviation ministry has drawn up a proposal to transfer the annual Rs 500-crore burden of loss-making Air India (AI) for flying to remote areas to domestic passengers flying on busy routes, who will have to shell out up to Rs 100 on every ticket, according to reliable sources.
Minister Ajit Singh's earlier stand was that private commercial airlines who have failed to honour their commitment operating in these far-flung areas would have to reimburse AI.
Ministry sources said that yet another fare hike is in the offing as it has been decided to go ahead with imposing a Rs 60 - Rs 100 cess on every ticket bought by passengers for metro and other high-density routes. The money will go to a fund to finance connectivity to remote towns and cities where private airlines do not fly as they do not find it profitable. Initially, licenses allotted to private airlines made it mandatory for them to undertake flights to these tier-II and tier-III towns. But they refused flying to these areas citing loss. Consequently, the burden was borne by AI.
21/04/13 Daily mail.co.uk
